


Strong in the Real Way

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Episode: s01e44 Marble Madness, Ficlet, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 13:24:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17245019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: “This was Rose’s favorite place,” Garnet says. Her voice is blunt, but not unkind. A fusion, Pearl thinks, not unlike the mixture of sounds she hears swirling in the background of the night air.“She said it reminded her of what we’d fought for,” Pearl confirms, quietly. “That she could see everything beautiful and worth protecting about the Earth from this spot. Especially after the humans built Beach City.” She pauses, sighs, then turns at last to face the other Gem. When she speaks again, she already sounds like defeat, like a hesitant sort of terror. “What are we going to do, Garnet?”Reflecting on the newfound threat of another war, Garnet sees something in Pearl that Pearl doesn’t see in herself.





	Strong in the Real Way

**Author's Note:**

> I guess Season 1 Pearl has been on my mind lately. This is building on some themes that I also played with in my fic "Find Your Voice."
> 
> Title from the song in the Season 1 episode, "Coach Steven."
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Pearl doesn’t turn as she hears the Warp activate behind her, though she senses Garnet’s hovering presence there. Instead, she continues to stare past the laundry machines out at the beach, listens to the rhythmic sound of the ocean and how it blends with that of Steven’s shirts tumbling in the dryer. 

She doesn’t ask how Garnet found her. She doesn’t need to. Pearl admittedly has hiding places that the other Gem doesn’t know—locales that remind her of secrets that she shared with Rose alone, and with the Gem _before_ Rose, secrets of which no one can speak now—but there are only a handful of those left. Of the rest, Garnet is well aware. Some, she’s even been to herself.

And Garnet knows _her_ , as much as anyone still alive does. Knows that she wouldn’t leave the Temple tonight, that she wouldn’t want to be far from Steven in light of everything that transpired today. And knows, too, that…

“This was Rose’s favorite place,” Garnet says. Her voice is blunt, but not unkind. A fusion, Pearl thinks, not unlike the mixture of sounds she hears swirling in the background of the night air. 

“She said it reminded her of what we’d fought for,” Pearl confirms, quietly. “That she could see everything beautiful and worth protecting about the Earth from this spot. Especially after the humans built Beach City.” She pauses, sighs, then turns at last to face the other Gem. When she speaks again, she already sounds like defeat, like a hesitant sort of terror. “What are we going to do, Garnet?”

“When they come, we’ll face them.”

 _When_ , not _if_. Pearl doesn’t need Future Vision to know that Homeworld is coming for them, that in the best-case scenario, there will be another war—Peridot _saw_ them after all, they’d _fought_ her, _revealed_ themselves to her, and she’d _said_ that she would report them. But hearing Garnet confirm this nonetheless strikes her like a blow to the Gemstone. 

And, this time—for this war or for whatever is coming—they’re alone. 

“ _How_? Without Rose…” She allows the remainder of the sentence fade into the night air, looks down at her feet. And when Pearl finally manages to return her gaze to the other Gem’s face, she expects to see solemnity there, maybe even a hint of grief—Garnet, too, misses Rose, even if the relationship she shared with her cannot compare to the one Pearl did—and so Pearl is shocked, when she sees instead a grin begin to creep its way across Garnet's features. “What is it?”

“Rose was the leader of the Crystal Gems,” Garnet admits. “But for centuries, when I thought of the Rebellion, I thought of _you_.”

“ _Me_?”

Garnet lowers her chin as if in a nod. “A Quartz solider built on Earth rebelling against her Diamond was one thing, but a _Homeworld Pearl_? Ruby couldn’t stop thinking about it. It terrified her…but it also thrilled her.”

Pearl flushes blue, already feels the shame of the lie welling up in her—if Garnet knew the _truth_ …But before she can protest, the other Gem continues.

“ _You_ were the one who nearly disincorporated Sapphire, all those years ago, it was because of your strength and what it was capable of that Ruby and Sapphire Fused in the first place. And you were the one that found me the second time they did and held a sword to my throat.”

“I…that wasn’t…”

“It's because of _you_ that I exist, Pearl. And Rose might have allowed me to believe in who I wanted be, and she might have been the leader of the Rebellion, but it was your strength of will that enabled me to believe that the Rebellion was _possible._ ”

Pearl feels the blue spread across her cheeks.

“And it’s true that we don’t have Rose. But we have _you_.” Garent smirks. “Besides, you sounded just like her today.”

“What?”

“When you told Peridot who we were, that we were still alive and still the guardians of Earth. You sounded just like Rose.”

“But I didn’t…I was just…I wasn’t thinking, I just _moved_! I wasn’t _trying_ to be like her!”

“Then it is a testament to your own strength.”

Pearl, stunned to silence, gapes. She's not like _Rose._ Rose was a revolutionary, a _Diamond!_ Was more than that, so much more, was...was... _extraordinary!_ And she's just a _Pearl!_ (She's a Crystal Gem. She's _free_...)

Garnet lays a grounding hand on Pearl’s shoulder, breaks the silence to answer the question that Pearl had left hanging. “Whatever happens, we'll be resolute. Together.”

“Do—" Pearl's voice comes back to her in a sputter, and her confused lips, when they move, feel like lead. "Do you see that with your Future Vision?”

“I don’t need to,” Garnet replies.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I adore comments!


End file.
